COOINAGHTYN MANNINAGH MANX REMINISCENCES Dr John Clague
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DR JOHN CLAGUE COOINAGHTYN MANNINAGH MANX REMINISCENCES dr john clague Cooinaghtyn Manninagh MANX REMINISCENCES COOINAGHTYN MANNINAGH MANX REMINISCENCES BY DR JOHN CLAGUE Edited by Stephen Miller Chiollagh Books 2005 This electronic edition first published in 2005 by CONTENTS Chiollagh Books 26 Central Drive Onchan Introduction i Isle of Man British Isles * IM31EU “DR CLAGUE SENT ME A LETTER IN MANX” Contact by email only: [email protected] 1. Letter to Edward Faragher (1898) 1 Originally published in 1911 2. Letters from Dr John Clague (1899) 3 with facing Manx and English text 3. Letters from Rev. John Kewley to G.W. Wood (1908 & 1911) 7 This edition reproduces the English language text only 4. Letter from Rev. John Kewley to J.E. Quayle (1939) 9 © 2005 Chiollagh Books * All Rights Reserved Cooinaghtyn Manninagh isbn 1-898613-18-4 MANX REMINISCENCES Introduction 17 i. Christmas and the New Year 19 ii. The Calendar 26 iii. May Day 28 iv. Tynwald 30 v. Sun and Moon Worship 31 vi. The Harvest 33 vii. The Boat Supper 35 viii. Customs connected with Marriage and Death 38 contents ix. Charms and Cures 42 INTRODUCTION x. Superstitions and Sorcery 51 On the 16 June 1908, Sophia Morrison wrote to Karl Roeder and closed her letter: xi 54 . Music and Singing You may be interested to know that Dr Clague is writing a book on Manx things—Manx names of plants, stars, place names etc—Manx proverbs & folklore. xii. Food 58 He has been engaged writing it for the past 18 months, & hopes to publish it sometime in Spring. The book will be brought out in parallel columns—Manx and xiii. Parish 60 English—Mr T. Moore, Port Erin, being responsible for the Manx.1 Clague was to die that year, not that long after the date of the letter, on 23 August. xiv 64 . Port Erin Breakwater He had been suffering from heart disease for several years.2 The book was later to appear in 1911, under the title of Cooinaghtyn Manninagh: Manx Reminiscences.3 The xv 65 . Miscellaneous introduction was written by Rev. John Kewley, later Archdeacon and Rector of Andreas, but then the incumbent at Arbory.4 Kewley was a great personal friend to Clague, and he wrote to Sophia Morrison, “I shall miss him very much indeed as I used to see a great deal of him. Only three days ago before his death he spent Appendix between 2 and 3 hours here with me.”5 He continued: xi. 71 He has left an enormous quantity of Manx in the way of many scores of note Kiaulleeaght books &c. I have been with Mrs Clague 5 or 6 days already sorting them out from among his papers. I fancy that some of them are practically ready for publication, but it will be some time before I shall be able to report on them.6 These notebooks are once again mentioned in his introduction: His notes were afterwards carefully transcribed in volumes, of which he has left about thirty behind. The material for most of these was put into shape at Brookfield, where almost daily he spent many happy hours at the work with Mr and Mrs Moore.7 1 Sophia Morrison to Karl Roeder, 16 June 1908, Manchester Central Library, Manchester City Archives, M277/12/1–141. 2 “Death of Dr Clague,” Isle of Man Examiner 29 August 1908: 7 col. a. 3 Dr John Clague, Cooinaghtyn Manninagh: Manx Reminiscences By the Late Dr John Clague (Castletown: M.J. Backwell, n.d. [1911]). For a reprint of the English text only, see Dr John Clague, Cooinaghtyn Manninagh: Manx Reminiscences (Douglas: Hospice Care, 1991). For the Manx only, see Dr John Clague, Cooinaghtyn Manninagh, ed. Phil Kelly (n.p.: Privately, by the Editor, n.d. [1994]). 4 J.D. Qualtrough, “Archdeacon John Kewley, 1860–1941,” Journal of the Manx Museum v.65 (1941). See too, Rev. John Kewley, “Rambling Memories of a Manx Sexagenarian,” Ellan Vannin Magazine i (1923). 5 Rev. John Kewley to Sophia Morrison, 8 September 1908, Manx National Heritage Library (MNHL), MS 09495, Box 3. 6 Rev. John Kewley to Sophia Morrison, 8 September 1908, MNHL, MS 09495, Box 3. 7 Rev. John Kewley, “Introduction,” Cooinaghtyn Manninagh: Manx Reminiscences By the Late Dr John Clague (Castletown: M.J. Backwell, n.d. [1911]) x. i Stephen Miller Introduction Kewley wrote that, “[t]his volume of ‘Reminiscences’ was the last, and was only just The previous month he had written in a similar vein to Edmund Goodwin, “I have completed at the time of his death.”8 Twenty-four of these notebooks are now in the written down thousands of colloquial and idiomatic sentences of all kinds, in fact so Manx National Heritage Library, but the one containing the text of the many that it is difficult to get fresh ones.”15 Moreover, 9 “Reminiscences” is not amongst them. Evidently, it appears that a number of these Every expression has been taken down from the older generation of Manx notebooks must have remained in Kewley’s hands and, subsequently, are now lost.10 speakers—those who in early life not only spoke Manx but also thought in it. I However, the original rough notes for the music and folklore sections of Cooinaghtyn have also a great number of tales, fairy tales, ghost stories & in Manx. I have simply Manninagh remarkably do survive. These were noted down into a blank diary for written this to tell you the kind of material I have, and the kind of work I have 1892.11 been doing. I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer in allowing me to Clague’s papers and personal library passed to Kewley, and they were sizeable in write to you for sources of words and turns of phrases and I shall be pleased to avail ff 16 the extreme: myself of your o er. We had to take to our house, as far as I can judge, 6 or 7 tons of books & papers, This does not exhaust the detail of this letter: & our house is only a small one. Consequently with books, papers & so many The colloquial expressions that I have taken down in reference to Folk Medicine, other things we scarcely have room to move among boxes, hampers, drawers & charms &c would make a fairly large book. When I was collecting the Manx piles on the floors.12 Songs,17 I took down everything that was spoken in Manx, as I can write it—and fi According to Kewley, the collecting of the material copied up later into the spell it correctly—just as readily as English. I have collected four or ve hundred notebooks had first commenced after 1901: genuine Manx proverbs in addition to those in interspersed through Cregeen’s and Kelly’s Dictionaries.18 After a severe illness in 1901 he had more leisure than previously, and he spent a One of the strengths of Cooinaghtyn Manninagh is its chapter on folk medicine, great deal of time with many of the old Manx folk, obtaining and writing down on 19 the spot everything he could draw from them which threw light on the which includes thirteen charms alone, amongst other well-observed detail. construction of the language.13 Goodwin passed this letter on to Morrison for her to read: He had started earlier than that, however, as he wrote to G.W. Wood in 1899: You will see by Dr Clagues letter what successful rescue-work he has done in saving I am merely a collector and preserver of the spoken language, and I have taken from utter loss such extensive remains of the Manx Music and language. He has done work that but for him could never have been done.20 down thousands of colloquial expressions which would otherwise have been lost. I have at least five hundred proverbs in addition to those you have collected.14 In this letter, Clague also assesses his own competence in speaking as opposed to writing Manx: 8 Kewley, “Introduction,” x. 9 Deposited as MNHL, MS 450/1–24 A. They are described, and the contents discussed, in George Broderick, “Manx Traditional Songs and Song Fragments: II, Manx Museum MS 15 Dr John Clague to Edmund Goodwin, 4 April 1899, MNHL, MS 2147/2 A. 450 50 1982 A,” Béaloideas ( ). 16 Dr John Clague to Edmund Goodwin, 4 April 1899, MNHL, MS 2147/2 A. 10 As regards his folk song collection, rough notes made available to A.G. Gilchrist by Kewley 17 For Clague the folk song collector, see A.G. Gilchrist, “Songs from the Isle of Man (Part have not been found. Broderick, “Manx Traditional Songs and Song Fragments: II, Manx i),” Journal of the Folk-Song Society vii.28 (1924), “Songs from the Isle of Man (Part ii),” 450 2 3 Museum MS A,” – . JFSS vii.29 (1925), “Songs from the Isle of Man (Part iii),” JFSS vii.30 (1926). See too, 11 1892 MNHL, MS “Manx Folk Lore,” notes compiled by Dr John Clague, undated [ or after], Robert Corteen Carswell, “Music Collected in the Isle of Man in the late Nineteenth 952 a. Clague’s handwriting is such that in places one needs to refer from time to time to Century: ‘Rescue Archaeology’ and the Published Results,” MA dissertation, University of Cooinaghtyn Manninagh to make out certain words or phrases. There is nothing to suggest Liverpool, 2001. that these were notes as taken down in the field, rather the opposite. The thematic nature of 18 Dr John Clague to Edmund Goodwin, 4 April 1899, MNHL, MS 2147/2 A.